Saddam pledge to help inspectors
Saddam Hussein today thrust a roadblock in the way of early military action by promising fuller cooperation with the United Nations weapons inspectors.
After talks between the regime and the UN team in Baghdad, Iraq said it would urge its scientists to attend "private interviews" with inspectors and encourage visits by the UN to "private sites" - apparent code for the homes where weapons are thought to be hidden.
A joint statement issued by the regime and the UN said that Iraq would also form its own teams to help search for suspect warheads.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said "a number of practical issues" had been resolved in the talks. While the offers by Iraq, if genuine, would be welcome, they look certain to be greeted with the deepest mistrust in both Washington and London.
There will be fears that the package could be little more than a ruse to muddy the waters and make it harder for America to secure the second UN Security Council resolution that Tony Blair is hoping for.
The announcement came as Britain prepared for the longdelayeddespatch of a large-scale ground force to the Gulf, with orders to two Army brigades to mobilise for war.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was due to announce this afternoon that the 7th Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats - and 16 Air Assault Brigade are on notice to move to Kuwait. Mr Hoon is expected to stress that the move does not mean inevitable war against Iraq.
But the news that an estimated 14,000 troops and some 150 Challenger battle tanks are to be deployed marks the most significant step so far in Britain's military build-up. And it means that armoured troops will be stationed in Kuwait by the middle of next month.
The latest moves followed a week of increasing pressure on Saddam, with America backing an effort to persuade the Iraqi leader to flee to exile. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will today meet his counterparts on the Security Council in New York to urge their support for a fresh UN resolution to authorise military action.
The campaign was balanced, however, by warnings from UN weapons inspectors that more time was required for them to discover the "smoking gun" evidence to prove beyond doubt that Iraq is concealing weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Straw today backed the idea of urging Saddam into exile, describing it as "a very sensible suggestion".
However, in Beirut, a special Iraqi envoy dismissed any such talk. "All Iraqis - from children to the old - would fight to defend their leader from a foreign invasion," said Ali Hassan al-Majeed.
Asked about suggestions from the Bush administration that Saddam quit to avoid war, he told reporters in Beirut: "Who appointed the idiot Bush as the world's police officer?
"As we have said before, this is merely nonsense and one of the tactics of psychological warfare."
